WILMINGTON, Mass. — If Hollywood make-up artists created a closed-up shiner on a actor’s face that resembled Johnny Boychuk’s left eye right now, they’d be fired for overdoing it.

But Boychuk’s swollen left black eye is real, courtesy of Montreal’s Ryan White from a fight in the first period of Boston’s 4-1 loss to the Canadiens. Boychuk attempted an open-ice hit on Montreal’s P.K. Subban, but missed. White took exception to what he thought was an attempted leg-on-leg blow.

“I didn’t really want to put my knee out there. So I kind of just fell over the top,” said Boychuk about the play after practice today at Ristuccia Arena. “And so as soon as I got up, I was fighting already.”

Boychuk said he wished he had more time to get his gloves off. Despite the mark White left on him, Boychuk called it “a good fight.”

I think we all can agree that given a fair fight, which means neither guy jumps the unaware guy, there would have been another result. Watch the Boychuk-Fraser fight from last year and you’ll understand exactly what I mean.